Narrative:

Sav has an LOA with the us army for R3005 airspace south of the sav runway 10 final; this LOA allows for the army to utilize uas's in the airspace and also allows for sav approach to take a portion of the airspace known as the 'pembrooke call up area' when sav needs to conduct IFR/IMC approaches to runway 10 due to weather. Sav needed to do instrument approaches to runway 10; but the army denied the call up area due to its activity scheduled in R3005. Sav has to then [restrict] the air carriers; air taxi; corporate and general aviation aircraft to accommodate the army's use of the restricted area. Prior to the uas information; the FAA allowed us to go right up to the edge of the restricted areas; and the army maintains a buffer within the airspace. The FAA's lack of understanding of uas activity has required sav to miss the airspace by three miles. That three mile buffer imposes onto the sav runway 10 final. We can't do approaches; aircraft get delayed; no one is happy and cross wind arrivals and departures are required to accommodate the FAA's misapplication of separation for aviation activities that are not a danger. Recommendation; smarten up and realize that the army's inside buffer is adequate; or force the army to increase the inside buffer; and/or reduce the FAA's required separation so we can provide a safe and efficient service to the sav users.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: SAV Controller voiced concern regarding the recently interpreted FAA separation requirements reference R3005 (UAS activity); noting the procedure unduly restricts SAV aircraft activity.

Narrative: SAV has an LOA with the US Army for R3005 airspace south of the SAV Runway 10 final; this LOA allows for the Army to utilize UAS's in the airspace and also allows for SAV Approach to take a portion of the airspace known as the 'Pembrooke call up area' when SAV needs to conduct IFR/IMC approaches to Runway 10 due to weather. SAV needed to do instrument approaches to Runway 10; but the Army denied the call up area due to its activity scheduled in R3005. SAV has to then [restrict] the air carriers; air taxi; corporate and general aviation aircraft to accommodate the Army's use of the restricted area. Prior to the UAS information; the FAA allowed us to go right up to the edge of the restricted areas; and the Army maintains a buffer within the airspace. The FAA's lack of understanding of UAS activity has required SAV to miss the airspace by THREE miles. That three mile buffer imposes onto the SAV Runway 10 final. We can't do approaches; aircraft get delayed; no one is happy and cross wind arrivals and departures are required to accommodate the FAA's misapplication of separation for aviation activities that are NOT a danger. Recommendation; smarten up and realize that the Army's inside buffer is adequate; or force the Army to increase the inside buffer; and/or reduce the FAA's required separation so we can provide a safe and efficient service to the SAV users.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.